A Future Forbidden
by Eddd
Summary: He can travel anywhere through time and space, but there's one future he can never know. To prevent the pain of those he loves he has always suffered alone... but will magnificent Amy Pond be the one to save him from his life of solitude?
1. These are the Feelings

This is Chapter 1, but it's more of a scene-setting prologue. The story really begins in the next chapter...

* * *

Amy Pond's heart fluttered as the Doctor took her hand. It was foolish, she knew, to be so utterly thrilled by the brief contact as he pulled her through the door and out into the next strange new world. It was a meaningless action; merely an attempt to move her along more quickly, his desire to show her whatever was outside the TARDIS just as great as ever. At best the touch could be considered trusting and friendly and _close_. Nothing more.

But still it set Amy's heart on fire.

It wasn't that she was keeping count, nor that she was deliberately registering in her mind every time they brushed shoulders, or every time he looked into her eyes. It was just that whenever he did, whatever certainty she had managed to maintain that she could never be his, simply vanished. When he looked at her with that sideward smile of his, when he laughed and pulled her into a hug, when he linked his arm around hers… it wasn't hope. It was a childish, unrealistic delusion. In those moments she couldn't help but truly believe that everything was perfect, that there was no one else in the world and that he would never leave.

And then he'd let go, or look away, or run off to inspect whatever had just grabbed his seemingly short-spanning attention. And every time her heart would break. But she would smile and follow him, trying to ignore the ache in her soul. Waiting again, for the next time they touched.

* * *

He wasn't stupid. He wasn't ignorant. Nobody stupid and ignorant could have survived nine-hundred years, given the sort of things he'd been through. And he certainly wasn't naïve. He knew exactly how she felt.

Which is why he kept letting go.

He saw the look in her eyes when he peered into them. He heard the quickened pace of her breathing when he moved close to her. He felt the soft yet urgent way she hugged him back. And he loved it. He loved knowing how he could make her feel. In his weaker moments he would allow himself a full five seconds to gaze into her beautiful brown eyes. And he would feel the bliss of the way she gazed back.

But then he would remember. Remember his responsibility to make sure she could be happy. And if she loved him, then she never would be. They could never be together forever. And the closer they got to each other, the harder it would be to let go when the time eventually came.

So he looked away. So he let go. So he ran. He distracted himself with whatever he could find. He pretended he didn't care. He broke her heart over and over in the hope that she would stop looking at him in that way. He wanted to carry the burden of this heartache alone.

But she was so stubborn. He would tell her to stay and she would follow. He would tell her to stay silent and she would speak. He would tell her not to touch things and her curious hands would wander… And every time he looked at her his eyes would tell her to give up and forget him. And she would blink the tears away and follow him.

He wished he could tell her how he felt. He wished he could take her in his arms and never let go. But it would never be possible. She could never be his. He had no right to lay any sort of claim to her, and he had no right to ruin any chance of a life for her. He was horrified by the occasional stray thought that even his presence in her life for this long would permanently destroy her ability to carry on when he would inevitably have to leave. He lived in constant fear that he had already done more damage than could be repaired. But more than that he lived in a constant fear that one of these days his strength of conviction would fail… and he wouldn't let go.

* * *

They were in a park. The name of the place hadn't stuck in Amy's mind as the Doctor waffled on about where exactly they were, but it didn't much matter to her. The suns were shining in the slightly orange-tinted sky, the grass beneath them was soft and fluffy and she and the Doctor lay side by side, gazing up at the clouds.

Amy tried not to let the word 'perfect' come to mind. Thinking words like that would lead to thinking of other words, like 'happy' and 'bliss' and 'forever'. She continually reminded herself that around the Doctor, happiness was frequently replaced with danger, that bliss was just what happened before you realised you needed to run, and that forever was only ever going to be applicable to one of them. Not that she needed forever. She would gladly trade a forever by herself for just a few years with him.

"Do you often get to come somewhere nice like this and just… _relax_?" She asked, glancing over at him. "In between the running for your life and fighting monsters?"

"The trouble is how often the monsters decided to interrupt the relaxation." He looked over at her and grinned. "It's just how it seems to be for me."

She smiled back. "Well I'll just have to force you to _try _and relax more often then," She turned back to the clouds above. "I mean don't get me wrong, I'm all for the adrenalin and the running and the saving the universe and all that, but it's nice once in a while to just put your feet up I think."

"Oh yes, definitely. Important thing that. The putting up of the feet and whatnot."

"You do, don't you? Put up your feet?"

"Well not always _up_ as such."

"But you do try and have… _days off_, from the whole running, fighting, saving thing?"

"…There's not generally a whole lot else left, when the running and fighting and _etc. etc. _is being avoided." Amy turned back towards the Doctor as he looked up into the sky, aware that he wasn't really observing the clouds any longer. "And after all, what's life about if not trying to keep things interesting?"

"Well there's plenty of other things I think," Amy said quietly, aware that she was entering into a risky territory of conversation. "Should one feel so inclined." She didn't want to scare him off, and if her chosen topic drifted towards a certain well-avoided theme, then the Doctor would undoubtedly remember something important he had to do somewhere else, very quickly and they would say no more about it.

"Do you have any hobbies?" She asked, after a longer-than-comfortable pause. "Something to do when you're not busy rescuing some alien species?"

"A hobby?"

"Yeah, like what you do for fun?"

"But saving alien species _is_ fun."

Amy sighed, and smirked at him. "You are hopeless Doctor."

* * *

"There y'see? Fun! What more could you want out of a day than this!"

He pulled a lever on the control panel of the TARDIS, then twisted a valve handle and pushed a button. The TARDIS began to shake and rattle and Amy massaged the bump that was swiftly forming on the side of her head.

"I think less of a concussion would be nice," she said, "And I think '_fun'_ is perhaps a little generous. Exciting, yes. Personally though I think I lost '_fun_' right about the point when Mr Six-Eyes took a swing at me with a tentacle."

"Oh the Vubeteruunians are just a little clumsy," the Doctor said dismissively, tapping something into a keypad and setting a pendulum swinging, hanging onto the railing as the TARDIS gave another almighty shudder. "And who's surprised with a head as big as that? It wasn't like he actually _wanted_ to hurt you. They, like so many other large, scaly creatures are just terribly misunderstood. "

"M-hm," Amy hummed, unconvinced. She went to stand by his side, shoulder to shoulder. "So. Where to now?" She looked into his eyes, her eager, slightly mischievous expression making one of his hearts skip a beat, the way it always did. For a brief moment all he could do was look back.

"Wherever you want," he said after what felt more than just a second, turning away and concentrating on a screen in front of him. "Earth or Alien?"

Amy looked thoughtful for a moment. "Earth," She said finally.

"When?"

"Let's go see if all that stuff about King Arthur was true," she replied, flashing him her stunning smile. "I've always had a hankering to meet a myth."

He smiled back and pushed a lever upwards.

The TARDIS lurched. Amy completely lost her footing and ended up toppling to the floor, where she rolled under the Doctor's feet. As he fell, he managed to grab the railing and swing himself around to land beside her, rather than falling onto her. As he landed though, his hand found hers and he squeezed it tight. They laughed together as the bumpy ride continued, holding onto each other and the railings for support. As the time machine levelled off however, Amy's laughter quickly faded. The Doctor looked round at her. She looked speechless, her eyes fixed on their linked hands - more specifically, the Doctor's thumb, with which he had been absent-mindedly stroking her soft skin.

He quickly let go.

* * *

Amy knew she was only torturing herself, but she couldn't help it. He commanded the attention and respect of armies and Kings and he had the compassion to save anyone and anything and would lay down his life to do so if necessary. In the little girl's fantasy knight-in-shining-armour guidebook he was absolutely one hundred percent, _it._

And she couldn't stand it any longer. She had to tell him.

She waited until they had bade farewell to the boy, Arthur and had closed the door of the TARDIS once again, ready to travel to some new, distant place. He flipped a switch and wound up a _thingemajigg_ and she heard the familiar echoed _whoop whoop whoop _of the TARDIS as it began to move through time.

"So where to next?" The Doctor asked, excitedly, busying himself with the controls of the ship. "Is it to be a planet, or a spaceship… The future, the past… I'd say the bit in the middle but I went there once and there's not much to say for it."

Amy crept up to her usual spot beside him, her shoulder gently leaning on his.

"Actually I wondered if we could just stay here for a little bit," she said, her throat dry and her heart thumping ferociously.

He turned to her blankly. "Stay where?"

"Here," she said again, trying to look at him pointedly.

"Where?"

"_Here_."

"Medieval England?"

"No _here_. Right _HERE._"

She lifted her hand and gently placed it on top of his, where it rested on the control panel. They had barely made contact however, before he pulled away and hurriedly darted around to the other side of the controls, muttering something about an inability to just hover in non-time.

"Well then park up somewhere and just… kill the engine," Amy said meaningfully, moving around the platform towards him.

Glancing nervously, he moved further around, trying to put some distance between them. "Listen, Amy," he said hurriedly. "I think know what you're thinking and I think what you're thinking is a bad thought. Nothing good will come of it - sort of pain-inducing thoughts in fact so I think it'd just be best if you stopped thinking it and we continued with whatever we were talking about before we started thinking."

"Would it really be so terrible?" Amy asked quietly, "To hear what I want to say?"

"I've a feeling in fact that it might be," he replied, somewhat breathlessly.

There was a moment of silence. "Fine," Amy whispered, her eyes cast down at her feet, leaning on the railing and picking distractedly at her fingernails.

The Doctor sighed and his shoulders sagged as she sniffed dramatically. "Look," he started towards her, placing a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, "I didn't mean to upset you, I just-"

He didn't get another word in. As he moved close enough, Amy suddenly lifted her head and planted her lips upon his, grabbing his shirt with both hands and pulling herself towards him. She knew it was foolish, and she knew she had about half a second before he pulled away, but she didn't care. It was worth it. She was happy, it was bliss and it lasted forever…

And then he pulled away. Gently releasing her hands from his shirt he pushed her to arm's length. Amy didn't argue. She just sighed and fought back the tears with an understanding nod.

"I'm sorry…" he began.

"It's ok," she said hoarsely. "I knew you wouldn't want to. I just…" she glanced awkwardly down at her fingernails again.

Her heart ached and she couldn't even make eye contact with him. She wondered if it really had been worth it after all... if it really had been worth this much pain.

"Amy," he said, lifting her chin and gently placing his palm on her check, "Dear, sweet, stubborn Amelia Pond…" She looked up into his eyes, a last vestige of hope resting on the brink of utter defeat.

She was ready for him to console her. To tell her that it simply couldn't be. That it couldn't work, and that he would never be right for her.

Instead, he leaned slowly forwards, and pressed his lips against hers, his fingers running through her hair. She could practically hear her heartbeat now, and her breaths came quickly and urgent as he kissed her more deeply. She pulled herself closer to him and he felt the of relief as he put his arms around her.

This was perfection. And then she opened her eyes, looking up at the empty bedroom she lay in. She brushed away a tear and wished with all her soul that she could have sacrificed whatever adventure lay in store for that day, to go back to her dream._  
_


	2. Here and There

Hi Gang, thanks for those who gave their thoughts on the first chapter, it was greatly appreciated :)

In this chapter, we see the story really get going. I hope you like it as an introduction to the plot, and I'd love to hear what you think of it!

* * *

The Doctor made his usual performance of setting the TARDIS onto its next course, glancing back at Amy with his slightly-superior smirk. She loved this part. Just watching him enjoy himself, operating the time machine… The sheer delight he obviously felt with the flip of every switch was positively infectious. She couldn't help but smile at him.

There was the whirring, and the _whooping_ and then the shaking and the roaring and the shuddering and the Doctor's laughing. And then it stopped.

Bursting with anticipation, Amy skipped over to the door, peering over to the Doctor as always, waiting for his expression of approval as she leaned outside to see where they were. Today it was a metal corridor. Much like all the metal corridors that she had ever seen on Star Trek and similar televised science fictions. Grilled metal floors, bolts and panels running along the walls and even a few pipes and cables lining the ceilings.

She leaned back into the TARDIS with an analytical expression. "Very stereotypical," she commented.

The Doctor allowed himself to smirk that smirk once again, teetering back and forth on his heels with his hands in his pockets.

"Well I know how you love your beaches," he said, looking pleased with himself. "And this one is one of the best, I promise you."

"I'm sure it is," Amy said sarcastically, folding her arms and leaning against the doorframe as the Doctor continued.

"And we'll have to try the local beverages, once you've pulled the hairs out it's got one helluva _kick_- provided you don't mind the purple breath for a few hours afterwards…"

"It's a ship," Amy said flatly.

"Really? They don't usually come up on the shore like that. At least not on _this_ planet-"

"No I mean it's a ship _out there_," Amy interrupted. "Not a beach."

The Doctor sagged somewhat. "Oh."

Amy grinned during the momentary paused that then followed.

"Well lets see what _is_ out there then," the Doctor said brightly, clapping his hands together with that fearless enthusiasm that Amy loved so much.

Amy beamed. They could have been walking into the fires of hell itself and the Doctor would still be excited by the prospect of unexplored territory. He raced out through the doors, peering curiously around the TARDIS as the metal corridor stretched off in 2 directions.

"Anyway," he called back to her. "No telling if this is or isn't a ship. It's early days yet, we only just got here. Might be a ground base. Might be military… perhaps it's _underground_? You hear that whirring? That could be a generator, or wait _no _too constant, not methodical enough burning at a rate of… to the power of four and the vibration seems to be running through all the wall panels so…" He trailed off, looking around himself.

"So it's a ship?" Amy prompted, leaning in the doorway of the TARDIS.

"It's a ship."

"Right-o then. Glad we got that one sorted out," Amy flashed him a smile and tried to stifle the physical urge to leap with joy as he smiled back. Keen to distract herself from her thoughts, she stepped out of the blue box and began to wander up the corridor, towards a sealed circular door.

"Amy," the Doctor called, not looking around, but examining some sort of maintenance panel, "Don't go wandering off just yet. I just need to establish where _exactly _we are."

"Oh shush, I'm not going anywhere," she replied dismissively, trying to ignore just how much she loved even the slightest suggestion that the Doctor might care about her well-being.

As he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began gathering some readings from the pipes above his head, Amy reached the door and looked curiously at the scratches that ran down one side of it. Deep, jagged gouges into the metal, around one edge of it, as if made by something reaching around from the other side.

"Doctor… I think you should take a look at this."

She looked closer. Some of the scratches had a tinted colour. A dark, browny _red_ colour. Amy swallowed nervously and took a step back. She felt a chill run down her spine and her heart thudded uncomfortably.

"Well I'm no expert, but I'm not getting an altogether welcome vibe from this place," she said, trying to sound casual. She turned around. "How about that beach…"

She trailed off into silence, her voice echoing down the metal corridor. The now very _empty_ metal corridor. The Doctor and the TARDIS were gone.

* * *

"There's some sort of frequency being emitted," he was saying, the whirr of his screwdriver alternating between the tiny bleeps as he fiddled with its settings. "Operating on a completely different plain, which is why we can't hear it. Probably what drew the TARDIS this way if it hit at the right pitch. Similar thing happened once before and I ended up centre stage during an opera. Terrible mess. The Diva was inconsolable._ Still_, better than shattering the windows I'd say…"

The Doctor looked round. He looked left, and he looked right. Amy wasn't there.

"Amy?" He called, glancing from one direction to the other faster than spectators at a tennis match. "I told you not to wander off…"

He strode up to the door where he was sure a few moments ago she was standing. A closer inspection of the corridor's end revealed that she was most definitely not there now. The Doctor was not the sort to be easily panicked. As far as he reasoned there was always a perfectly logical explanation for things. And if there wasn't then he could certainly invent one. He scanned the edges of the sealed door with the screwdriver, and checked the surrounding area for some sort of controls for the door.

_Nothing_, he thought. _So she didn't open the door herself… _This presented 2 options: 1 - someone _else_ had opened the door and she had wandered through it, and 2 - She had simply returned to the TARDIS. _Clearly option 2 is far more likely, he concluded. He turned around._

"Ah," he said, to the TARDIS-free corridor that now lay before him.

He moved back down the corridor, his arms stretched out and feeling the air in front of him, as if he were walking in the dark. The other end of the corridor held an identical metal door, very much sealed and with no controls in sight. The Doctor looked back and forth, the corridor feeling smaller and smaller every time he did so. He wasn't scared, or panicked… it was far too early in the proceedings for either emotion. But he was worried. Wherever Amy was, there was a good chance she was alone, and an even better chance that she would be scared.

"Amy," he called out again, "If you can hear me then don't panic… I'm going to figure this out."


	3. Now and Then

So I'm feeling quite keen on really getting into the story, so here's chapter 3 already. The next chap is going to be a little more... involved, so I probably won't be posting the update so quickly as this one.

As ever, I'm keen to hear what people think! Thanks so much for the reviews left so far. It's helpful to know what people like to hear when considering how to write the next stuff!

* * *

_Ok, force-fields_, Amy thought at first walking back down the corridor, stretching her arms out and expecting to hit some sort of barrier. There was none. She passed the point where the TARDIS had been. _I'd have heard it if the TARDIS had left, so it must still be here somewhere…_

She wandered back and forth down the corridor, her breathing growing more and more rapid as the panic started to set in.

"Doctor?" She called out, her voice echoing around the metal chamber she now found herself trapped in.

There was no reply. _The Doctor wouldn't have left me_, she told herself, trying to calm down a little. _Something else must have happened. So do I stay put and wait for him to sort it, or shall I try and figure this out for myself?_

Amy didn't really have to give this question a whole lot of consideration. She was not the sit-patiently-and-wait type. She headed over to the door with the least amount of concerning claw marks and put her hand out to try and see if she could push it open.

Her hand simply passed through it. Overbalancing by the unexpected lack of obstruction, she fell, head-long through the doorway, and found herself in a similar corridor to the one she had just been in. She looked back. Her legs hadn't made it all the way through and her feet were still hidden from view, still on the other side of the ghost-door. She quickly got to her feet and waved her hand about in front of her, watching it move in and out of the door like it wasn't there.

She wondered if it was a kind of hologram, and made a mental note to ask the Doctor about it later when she found him. _**If **__you find him, _said a voice in the back of her mind. Trying to brush this thought aside, she turned her attention to what now lay before her. It was a similar corridor, this one now veering off to the left and the right, with more doors down the sides of the walls as well as at the end. She walked forwards towards the fork in the paths and wondered which way to go. Both looked identical.

She went left.

* * *

The Doctor hadn't moved. He was still looking around at the corridor, trying to see anything definitively or even partially helpful. There wasn't a whole lot.

"Who're you?" Said a voice behind him suddenly.

His head whirled around. Now stood at the far end of the corridor was a young woman. She wore an old, filthy lab-coat, pinned to which was an ID badge of some sort. Her hair was tied back in a dishevelled bun, and the general appearance of her was not of someone well-cared for.

"Hello," the Doctor said cheerfully. "I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor who?" asked the woman uncertainly.

"Nope, just 'The Doctor'. What's your name then? And where is this exactly?"

"This is the storage deck. My name is Dr. Flannigan" said the woman, watching him warily. "What's your clearance?"

"Oh well, that'd be the highest of all the clearance's," the Doctor replied, flashing his psychic paper as he walked towards her. "Just…um, the storage deck of _what_?"

"Where did you come from?" Dr. Flannigan asked, giving the Doctor a fearful glance.

"I could say the same to you," the Doctor replied, looking at her analytically. "Just popped out of nothing a moment ago without warning or even a decent 'pop'. Do you know what's happening here?"

"You're not one of the crew," said Dr. Flannigan, taking a step back, her voice trembling with fear. "But you don't seem like one of… _them_."

"Who's 'them'," the Doctor asked softly, "And why do they have you so scared?"

"There's no time," Dr. Flannigan whispered.

The Doctor grinned reassuringly. "Actually time is the thing I've got plenty of. What's happening here?"

He blinked. As his eyes opened again, Dr. Flannigan wasn't there. He jumped back, eyes wide.

"Well that's very highly unusual and not at all good," he muttered to himself, fumbling with the sonic screwdriver and never letting his eyes wander from the patch of air where Dr. Flannigan had previously been stood.

He waved the screwdriver around in the air in front of him, the whirring echoing back down the corridor. He sighed as the device told him nothing of any use. _Not transported,_ he thought to himself. _Not invisible, not dead just… not here. Vanished._

For a brief moment all he felt was the thrill of a new challenge, and a half smile flashed across his face. Then everything else caught up with him and his smile quickly disappeared. Where had Dr. Flannigan vanished to? More importantly, where had _Amy _vanished to?

He sat down on the floor and leaned back against the door. He drew in and then released a deep breath of air, and closed his eyes, bringing Amy's face to the front of his mind. He couldn't help but smile as he recalled the features of her face. Her flowing red hair, her dazzling smile, her mesmerising eyes… and then, concentrating very hard on her image, he opened his eyes again.

She still wasn't there. He sighed. _Well it was worth a try,_ he thought, before setting to work trying to open the door.

* * *

"Quickly run!"

Amy screamed in surprise as the large, grubby man grabbed her arm and practically dragged her down the corridor.

"Oh my _GOD_, where the hell did you come from?" she shrieked, as she jogged to keep up.

"We don't have time, we have to run!" the man said sharply, urging her to move more quickly.

"Time for what?" said Amy, "What's happening?"

"They're _coming_, that's what's happening!" The man barked impatiently. "Now move your red-headed-arse before I just leave you to it!"

"I don't understand, _what's_ coming? What's happening? Where is everyone?"

The man looked at her critically, as if coming to a decision. "Listen, you have to keep running if you see one of the beasts," he said in a hushed but hurried tone. "Don't trust anyone you can't touch and _keep moving._ If you find anyone then ask them to explain it all better. You'll catch up soon enough."

"Wait, where are you going? Can't I stick with you?" Amy asked, as the man glanced behind them nervously. She looked back the way they had come, but she couldn't see anything there. "What's following us?"

She looked back and the man was gone. Her stomach turned and there was that familiar shiver down her spine.

"Hello?" she called timidly into the emptiness that surrounded her on all sides.

Her heart was thudding in her chest now. What little confidence she had in her safety was swiftly dwindling, and now more than ever she just wanted to curl up in the Doctor's arms. Where was he?

_He's gone,_ said the vicious voice in the back of her head. _Gone, just like all the other times._

"But he always comes back," Amy murmured, not allowing herself to lose faith completely. _I just need to figure out what's going on here._

She continued down the corridor, heading for the picture on the wall at the end, which looked somewhat like a map...


	4. Alone

Hey gang, here's Chapter 4. I took a bit longer on this one because there's plenty to explain and I wanted to try not to sound too exposition-y.

I'd love to hear what people think of the story, so please R/R! It's always useful to know which bits people are enjoying, so I can more suitably write following chapters!

So Amy and the Doctor are both lost in this mysterious empty space ship, where strangers are there one moment and gone the next...

* * *

_What would the Doctor do?_ It was with this question in mind that Amy had decided to navigate her way through the silent and empty ship towards the bridge. As far as she saw it, the bridge was where the people in charge would be, and the people in charge ought to know what was going on. Of course there was always the chance that the people in charge weren't very friendly, but that was something she would deal with later.

She was moving quickly across what she had now (thanks to the wall-map) defined as the cargo deck, the heavy metal doors between passages simply sliding open at her approach. It concerned her slightly that the first door she had come across had been so… ghostly. She had tried simply walking through the doors here and there that didn't automatically open, but they had been very much solid and no amount of leaning, pushing or kicking seemed to change the fact. It was another thing she decided to put out of her mind for the time being.

For now she had a simple plan: Get to the bridge, find someone in charge, establish what was going on, find the Doctor. She repeated the four stages over and over to herself like a mantra, murmuring it under her breath so as to remove at least some of the eerie silence she was surrounded by. The plan itself was perfectly simple, but it was hard to focus on when Amy was sure she could hear whispers around every corner, when the shadows seemed to move in the corner of her eye and when she felt so terribly _alone_.

The truth was that she felt like bursting into tears. Like curling up in a corner and waiting for someone to come and find her… for the _Doctor_ to find her.

But she couldn't.

She was Amelia Pond, and she had waited for the Doctor for long enough. Now the time had come for her to find _him._

She reached the end of a corridor where the door slid across to reveal a small, cubicle. Amy was hesitant. Something deep inside of her felt that it was a bad idea to step into such a small and confined space. She wasn't normally claustrophobic, but something about the tiny elevator ahead had her thoroughly unnerved. She glanced over her shoulder, a shiver running down her spine as she suddenly felt like she was being watched.

There was nothing behind her. The metal corridor stretched off around a bend, beyond her line of sight, and was completely empty. Amy tried to calm her already fast-beating heart. She might have even preferred to be faced with someone rather unpleasant now, than continue on completely alone.

In that moment she came to the new conclusion that she'd rather be in a small enclosed space with her back against a wall, than out in the middle of a deserted corridor, where anything could sneak up behind her.

She stepped cautiously into the small square space, and turned around to look down the corridor she had just been in, grateful for the wall she could now back up against. She looked at the set of buttons listed beside the doorway. All of them bore strange symbols that probably meant something to someone, but meant nothing to her. She sighed and pushed one at random.

The doors slid closed. Amy let out a long, scared sigh as she felt the elevator start to rise.

"Who are you?" said an angry voice suddenly, making her scream and leap back with fright.

She was no longer alone.

* * *

The door slid open suddenly and the Doctor fell through it, landing ungracefully on his back. He looked up.

There was no one else around - no one to have set off the door besides him… He rolled over and leapt to his feet, pointing his screwdriver at the doorway.

"Motion sensor…" He muttered to himself. "So why didn't you activate before now?"

He only pondered this for a moment before setting off down the corridor.

* * *

It was a woman. She was dressed in plain, light blue scrubs, though Amy suspected not for medical purposes. The woman was filthy, her clothes torn in places and worn out at the knees, and she looked thin and gaunt like she hadn't eaten in some time. Her stare was wide and intense, her expression urgent as she demanded once again for Amy's identity.

Amy could barely breath, let alone form an answer, and she clung to the wall for support as she waited for her heart to stop racing. The woman slowly stepped forwards and gently prodded Amy on the shoulder. After a moment's pause, she stepped back again, then leaned over to the list of buttons and pushed one at the very bottom. Amy felt the elevator come to a sudden stop.

"Where did you come from?" the woman asked, more softly. She seemed to have realised how much she had frightened Amy with her abrupt appearance.

"I- I came with a friend," Amy stammered eventually, when her pulse had returned to a more normal pace. "We came by accident in a …ship."

The woman sighed, leaning against the opposite wall. "And then your friend disappeared?" she ventured.

Amy frowned, and nodded slowly.

"I'm sorry," the woman said. "You shouldn't have come here."

"Who are you?" Amy asked, "What's happening here?"

"My name is Andrea," the woman replied. "I was a research assistant here. Who are you?"

"Amy."

There was a brief, awkward silence following these introductions.

"What is this place?" Amy asked eventually.

"It _was_ a mobile research lab," Andrea sighed. "Now it's a ghost-ship."

"_Ghost_-ship?" Amy repeated uncertainly, feeling her heart speed up yet again.

Andrea nodded darkly. "We were conducting experiments," she explained. "Experiments ruled too risky to be formed back on Earth. So we were sent out here where we would do no harm should it go wrong…" her eyes seemed to lose focus as she spoke, like she was no longer seeing Amy and the elevator, but gazing out into the distance, remembering everything from her story.

"… And it went wrong?" Amy finished.

Andrea nodded once again. "We're safe in here," she said suddenly, gesturing to the elevator. "The lift system is lined with a sealant that the frequencies can't penetrate. But as soon as you're out there…" She trailed off again. "Have you ever seen a ghost?"

Amy shook her head. "Not recently," she replied, trying to ignore the nagging feeling that she was trapped in a lift with a lunatic.

"Well leading theorists have posed the thought that ghosts aren't really spirits of dead humans, but rather alien beings that simply live on a different physical plain from us," Andrea explained hurriedly, with a tone that suggested she had summarised this concept many times before. "A different plain is really just a place where living forms resonate at a different frequency. A different frequency of _vibration_. If something moves fast enough then the human eye can no longer see it. What we were sent out here to find out, was if we could change a resonation, so as to make contact with these beings on the other plains."

Amy blinked. It was like the sorts of things the Doctor spoke about, but somehow he made it all sound far less…. Scary.

"So you were trying to turn people into ghosts?" she asked, screwing her face up in semi-confusion.

"Not exactly, just… transport living things between the different frequency plains. They built a machine to do it. To alter the resonation of a living being. They brought the machine out here, pointed it at the test subject, and turned it on."

Andrea's expression became distant once again as she spoke. "It was so quiet, so… _instant_. Everyone just vanished."

"Where did they go?"

"To different plains," Andrea shrugged. "The machine didn't just affect the single test subject, but the whole ship. A thousand people suddenly separated into different resonating frequencies. We can't see each other, hear each other or touch each other. And the machine seems to be running through a cycle, changing the frequencies every few minutes, so one moment you're there, then you're half there and half not, and then you're gone completely."

"Well, that would explain why I fell through a closed door," Amy sighed, trying to digest all the information.

"It's only living things affected, which is why the ship stays the same," Andrea went on. "Sometimes you're resonating fast enough to pass through walls, and other times you can touch things just as normal."

"I saw a man," Amy said suddenly. "He was running, and he grabbed my arm, and then he vanished."

"You crossed frequencies with someone," said Andrea. "The machine set you on the same plain as someone who happened to be nearby. It happens, infrequently, and in most cases when two people do resonate the same, they're never in the same room. It's what's happening now in fact, though that's because we're sealed in this elevator. It's the reason we've not already shifted into different frequencies. The second I open that door again the odds of us ever happening to meet again are… astronomical. I only managed to get in here at the same time because I saw the lift door open and figured someone on a different plain was heading in here. We synced frequencies as soon as the door shut."

Amy wasn't really listening anymore. She felt the bottom of her stomach drop, and her whole world grow dark and cold. The odds were astronomical? Unlikely to ever meet again? The Doctor's face flashed into her mind. She thought back to that brief moment before they had stepped through the TARDIS' doors. Those few precious minutes they had together before…

Would she never see him again?

"There are over a thousand people here," Andrea murmured, "And every single one of them is walking alone, around a silent and deserted ship."

Amy felt sick. The thought of never standing beside him again, never feeling his warm embrace at the close of another adventure, never seeing the deep and endless world in his eyes…

"No," She whispered.

"No?"

"No," she repeated, looking up fiercely, her eyes brimming with tears and burning with determination. "This can't be right. This can't be…_it._ I can't just give up and stay here alone…"

"Well what are you going to do?" Andrea scoffed. "There's no chance of getting away. The first wave of panicked idiots must have already launched themselves off in the escape pods, because there are none left."

"Why doesn't someone just turn the machine off?" Amy asked, trying to blink the tears out of her eyes.

Andrea sighed, "If I knew how then I'd do it myself. It's a complex piece of technology… I have no idea how it works. The operators obviously haven't done it, which means they're either part of the number of people who jettisoned themselves to safety or…"

Amy frowned as Andrea's eyes grew wide and fearful.

"Or what?" she asked. "What do you think happened to them?"

"Remember I said we were investigating the possibility of aliens on the other plains?" said Andrea, her voice trembling and barely more than a whisper.

Amy nodded slowly.

"Well," said Andrea, "We found some."

* * *

The Doctor was used to being alone. It was something he had endured time and time again, and even _with_ company he generally felt somewhat detached or separate. He tried to make sure he had people around him to prevent him from simply getting lost inside his own thoughts, something easily achieved with a mind as vast as his.

Feeling alone though, was just a natural state of being for him. The last of his kind, always the smartest in the room, always the one with the responsibility to keep everyone safe, always the leader and even in a room full of people, always alone.

But he never felt lonely.

Feeling lonely was different to just _knowing_ you were alone, because you were the only one like you. Nobody could ever get close, because no one could ever understand. The Doctor had felt completely alone in all of time and space since the Master died. He was the only one of his kind. The last. It was a lonely path to walk by its very definition.

But here, somehow, walking through the empty corridor of a strange, desolate space craft… The Doctor felt lonely.

His normal fearless, confident, curious nature usually allowed him to march through any bad situation regardless of the side-factors, or the dangers. If there was an end goal of fixing some sort of problem, saving some sort of victim or even running from some sort of monster, generally he could carry on alone. It didn't bother him.

But this was different. There was an emptiness inside that he'd never felt before. There was something missing.

There were occasions in the past when he'd almost lost the TARDIS, and the thought had made him feel sick and dizzy, like a part of him had died.

This was so much worse.

He hadn't really explored enough yet to make any form of real conclusion about where he was, or what had happened to the TARDIS… But he was beginning to understand his own thoughts well enough to know that neither point was very important to him right now.

Right now the thing that was missing, was something he hadn't even realised how much he needed. How much he had grown to depend on. How much he cared for.

Oh how he hoped she was ok.


	5. Ghost Whispers

Hi gang, my apologies for the huge delay in updating, but I've had a crazy fortnight and haven't had any time to sit and write!

This next installment is shorter than the last, but time between updates won't be so long again. Again, please do R/R, it's great to know what you guys think!

* * *

The Doctor turned this way and that, heading down corridor after corridor, through rooms filled with desks and papers, through large chambers filled with crate-laden storage racking, and then onto more corridors. The conclusion he had come to so far was that he was alone here… but there was something nagging at the back of his mind, as if to tell him that though he was alone, the ship wasn't _deserted_…

From the architecture of the ship itself, the Doctor estimated that it was human, and from the thirty-second century. From the files and documents scattered around the offices he had passed, he assumed that the ship was here for research purposes. He racked his brain. There was no particular significant historical event at this rough time concerning research in space as far as he could remember. He sighed, more than a little intrigued by it all.

No signs of fights or attacks, no signs of rapid and panicked evacuations… There were mugs of tea left at desks, half drunk and stone cold, and some computers were still running, open documents left onscreen. Whatever had happened here had happened suddenly. Where had everyone gone? He had to fight the interested grin that was on its way to his face. He couldn't help loving a good mystery.

He was looking around a small office room with four or so desks in it, scanning things here and there with his screwdriver when he heard a sudden typing sound. The gentle clicking of the keyboard on the desk nearest him. The screen of the computer had a mostly blank document open on it. He sat down at the desk and leaned forwards to look at the screen. The page contained only three words:

'_Please help us_'

The Doctor stared at the words for a long time, then he sat back, cracked his knuckles and typed a message into the keyboard.

'_Hello. I'm the Doctor. What can I do for you?'_

_

* * *

_

"I've never stopped long enough to get a good look at one of them," Andrea explained fearfully. "But they're big, and they're fast. They're more animal than humanoid. They move in and out of the same plains as the rest of us and they're usually very hungry."

Amy swallowed nervously. "How many of them are there?"

"I've no idea," Andrea shrugged. "Lots. And they seem to be attracted to the signal being emitted by the frequency machine because every time I've headed up that way, I've heard several of them moving about around the corners…"

Amy sighed deeply, thinking carefully about the situation. Well obviously if there was anyone who could fix the machine on their own it was the Doctor. But there was no telling where he was, or if he even had any idea what was going on.

"If only living things are affected, does that mean I can leave a message for people on other plains to read?" Amy asked suddenly.

"Yeah you can do that," Andrea shrugged. People have already tried. I've found odd messages here and there but there's no way to know if the person who left it is still there, or even still alive… Plus there's the added annoyance of when you're holding a pen that suddenly drops through your hand because you've shifted frequencies mid-message."

"What about a… tannoy system or something?" Amy continued. "A way to send a message all throughout the ship?"

Andrea shook her head. "Nothing like that. Messages to all crew members used to be distributed via computers. Of course now there's no way of knowing where anybody is in order to get a message to them…"

Amy sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she tried to think of a solution. There _had_ to be a way to get a message to the Doctor. As far as she saw it, the most important thing now was to make sure the Doctor knew what _she _knew. It was crucial if there was to be any chance of him fixing the frequency machine.

"There must be some way of relaying a message everywhere, or leaving a message in an obvious enough space…?" she ventured desperately.

Andrea looked thoughtful for a moment. "If there was any way of getting near the frequency lab then you could use the all frequency sensor…" she trailed off with a grim sigh. "Of course that's a non-starter considering it's right next to the machine…"

"What frequency sensor?" Amy asked urgently, dismissing for the moment the problem of a potential army of animalistic aliens.

"It's the testing sensor for the frequency machine," Andrea explained. "It can pick up living beings on all plains. The sensor is a sort of all frequency camera that's rigged to the computer. If you were to record the sensor session then it could sort of work as a play-back message."

Amy's heart lifted somewhat. "And that's in the lab where these animals are?"

Andrea nodded. "You're not seriously considering trying it out?"

Amy god to her feet. "The lab is a sure enough bet for somewhere the Doctor might wander," she replied. "And I have to try to reach him. How do I get to the lab?"

"You'll have to be damned quick," said Andrea, "And that's just getting _into _the lab… The sensor is a kind of containment unit. Even if you make it in and shut the door then by the time you've recorded your message I doubt you'll be alone out there…"

Drawing a deep breath, Amy closed her eyes and considered everything. It might get her killed. She might not succeed and even if she did, it might not work. There might be another option, but there was no guarantee and the chances of finding the Doctor by hoping to bump into him at some point were severely small and reduced considerably more by the fact that time spent wandering these empty corridors also brought the risk of bumping into one of the animals… And then there was the Doctor himself to consider. He would be trying to figure it out. He would always be investigating the situation, and sooner or later his investigation might take him to the lab. She could just leave him to figure it out himself? Just wait here in this lift until it was all over?

She knew it wasn't an option.

"Tell me how to set the sensor to record," she demanded.

Andrea quickly relayed the process of running the recorder and gave a brief instruction of how to get to the lab. Then she hit the button for the appropriate floor number and the elevator juddered into motion once again. Amy stood facing the door, breathing deeply and bracing herself for what she was about to do.

"I may never see you again," Andrea said simply, as they approached the relevant floor.

"If things go the way I hope they do, then I'll make a point to find you," Amy said flatly. She held out a hand, which Andrea shook warmly.

_She smiled. "Good luck," she said. "You're on your own from here."_

_Amy nodded, giving the woman one last parting smile. _

_The door opened._


	6. Séance

Hey gang! Time's a bit of a precious commodity at present so here's another shorter chapter but the plan is to be able to post more regularly, rather than long patches of nothing.

Thanks for everyone who's been reviewing, it's great to know what people think. Please keep R/R-ing as the story goes on!

* * *

It was a bizarre thing indeed to watch the keys on the keyboard moving with no visible assistance. By the Doctor's standards, very few things were bizarre and even fewer bizarre enough to spark his interest, but the ghostly typing of the message before him was definitely moving further up the list.

_Do you know what's going on?_

The Doctor paused for a moment. Then he began typing:

_Only just got here. Still figuring it out. Give us a tick._

The Doctor leaned back in the seat as the keys began bobbing up and down once again.

_Where have you come from? Are there others? _The message was typed more quickly than the first, suggesting a certain amount of urgency in the questions.

_There were others. Well, one other, but she's vanished. I don't suppose you'd know anything about that by the way?_

There was a long span of nothing after this. The Doctor waited patiently until the keys moved once more.

_You said you could help._

_Well I'll certainly give it a go, _The Doctor typed. _Where are you? Are you alone?_

_Yes. Everyone just vanished. I'm sitting in my old office. _

_What's your name, and what is this ship here for?_

_Greg. It's a research ship. Something to do with physics and frequencies. I don't understand any of it. I work payroll._

The Doctor paused for just a moment to consider this and then promptly tapped a response.

_Ok Greg, very important question now… When you're waiting for me to finish typing, do the keys on your keyboard move?_

_Yes._

The Doctor very delicately and very pointedly got up out of the chair.

_Ok Greg here's what I think: We are in the same room. Not exactly the same place, but definitely the same room. Just think of me as being invisible. Ish._

_I don't understand._

_For some reason I can't see you. Or hear you. Or touch you. Bit like a ghost. Well not Ghost. More like a… spirit._

_I'm a ghost?_

_No not a ghost._

_You said __ghost__!_

_I meant spirit._

_That still means ghost!_

_No, forget ghost. Totally wrong. My mistake._

As the Doctor leaned over the desk, continuing to type, facing towards the wall covered in notice boards and memos, he was unaware that something was creeping silently through the doorway behind him.

_I need to know what's happening, _said Greg.

_Can you remember anything happening when everyone disappeared?_ The Doctor asked, racking his brain for an answer. _Anything out of the ordinary, right before you were alone?_

_Nothing. I just looked up and suddenly everyone had vanished._

The beast, with its claws and drool-covered teeth, scaly back and vicious red eyes, moved between the desks, barely making a single sound as it padded across the carpet, eyes fixed on the man in front of him.

_The researchers must have done something, _was Greg's reply. _The whole ship is deserted. And I've been seeing things._

The Doctor tilted his head, intrigued further. _What kinds of things?_

_Things that can't be real. Hallucinations. People from my life… My girlfriend back home._

_And what happened when you saw her?_

_She told me to fix the machine. But she couldn't be real. When I put my hand out to touch her, it just passed right through her cheek._

_What machine?_

The animal, as tall as a man, raised itself upright onto its hind legs, drawing back its hefty claw as the tapping of keys echoed around the otherwise empty room. There was the briefest whooshing sound of the beast's arm swinging through the air before it sank its jagged claws into the man's body.

Nobody heard him scream.

The Doctor leapt back in surprise as the desk chair suddenly flew across the room, scattering papers, pens and the computer monitor in the process. He looked at the screen that now lay sideways on the floor of the office, and the half-typed reply that he could only assume was the last he would hear from Greg from Payroll. It read:

_The researchers were building a machine for whatever it is that they're out here to do. It's up in the lab, something to do with_

The Doctor edged his way along the wall of the room, towards the door, waving the sonic screwdriver about as he went, though he more or less knew already that it wouldn't tell him anything. As he slipped out of the office and headed down the corridor, glancing behind him for any sign of a follower, he thought about what little he had learned.

He wasn't the sort to jump to conclusions, but one was forming in his mind regardless. Greg had been in the same room, typing on the same keyboard, but had at the same time been in another place altogether. He was still unsure exactly how this had happened, but he'd fill in that blank later. For some reason there were also hallucinations and something had definitely _attacked_ him in that room - there was no way that a man alone could have scattered the furnishings about so easily - which altogether added up to some very bad times ahead if he couldn't figure it all out soon.

And there was a machine.

It was the Doctor's experience that where machines and researchers were involved, trouble was only a short circuit away and if the current state of things was anything to go by, he'd hazard a guess that the best place to start looking for answers would be wherever the science was going on.

_Right_, he thought. _Time to visit the lab._


	7. Brief Encounter

Ok I confess: I TOTALLY forgot about the fic. Got a lot else on at the minute and completely forgot I was writing it. My apologies.

I'll try and get back into things as soon as I can but here's a litte bit more at least, to keep things moving along. Sorry gang!

* * *

The Doctor stepped cautiously around each corner, glancing back and forth as he went. Despite the clear cut silence, he didn't feel like giving anything the opportunity to sneak up on him or catch him unaware. He also continued to wave the sonic screwdriver in the air, trying to gather any sort of reading that might indicate something unusual. It was obvious that something _was_ unusual, but by far the more unusual thing was that the screwdriver wasn't finding any evidence to that effect. It was almost as if the very normality of the unusualness was the key factor in whatever unusual event had taken place.

He gingerly poked his head around another corner. Then he blinked. His eyes narrowed. He blinked again. Just a few feet away from his position, stood the TARDIS.

There was no joy in this discovery. The Doctor was almost certain that nobody could move the TARDIS, which meant it should still be waiting back in the corridor he'd first arrived in. Which meant it could not be here now. Which meant whatever it was he was looking at now, it was certainly _not_ the TARDIS.

The Doctor stepped towards it, screwdriver whirring as it scanned.

And then suddenly there it was; the reading that he could not find.

He looked from the screwdriver to the TARDIS and beamed.

"Hallucination!" he cried gleefully. "Hallucination derived from… Desire, I'd say at a guess. Seeing what I want to see."

He waved his hand through the TARDIS which was no more solid than the air around it.

"So where did you come from then eh?" he murmured, looking at the blue box before him. "Same place as Greg from Payroll's girlfriend?"

A thought was occurring to the Doctor as he muttered away to himself, a thought that took shape as the seconds ticked by and an answer was becoming clear.

A hallucination of whatever a person wants to see… The Doctor was now seeing the TARDIS and Greg saw his girlfriend. And what had Greg's girlfriend told him? _Fix the machine_. The machine that the Doctor was trying to find. The machine in the lab. The machine where the science was going on and which probably had a great deal to do with whatever was going on here. The machine that Greg from Payroll knew nothing about and in all probability had no idea was broken. So a hallucination, of whatever someone wants to see, telling them to fix the machine. It was quite conceivable that Greg would have hallucinated his girlfriend in a time of stress, but if he knew nothing about the machine, then nor should the hallucination. So who told the hallucination about the machine?

And then an entirely new thought emerged into the foreground of his mind. A new observation: the whirring of the screwdriver was no longer the only sound he could hear.

Whatever it was, it was big and breathing deep, animalistic growly breaths that were hot and vile-smelling, and right behind the Doctor's head. He was very certain that the thing hadn't been there a moment ago. The seconds passed and the thing hadn't moved. The Doctor started considering all the possible reasons why it might not have attacked yet. A) Maybe it was no longer hungry, having just made a meal of Greg from Payroll. B) Maybe it was peaceful, and not interested in attacking him. C) Maybe _it _was the thing causing the hallucination and since he'd not been told yet to fix the machine, perhaps the creature was simply not finished. D) Maybe it hadn't realised he was there yet.

Since the screwdriver was still buzzing away, the Doctor calmly redirected it towards the thing behind him, and took a look at the readings. It was definitely not human, and seeing as there was no indication that this ship was designed for any other sort of creature, the Doctor saw it fair to hazard a guess that the two species didn't normally mix. However, whatever purpose the creature had here was a separate issue - The Doctor was still fairly certain that it had nothing to do with wherever the crew of this ship had disappeared to. _Those_ answers, he was still sure he would find in the lab.

He ran. It wasn't a decision he gave much thought to, but after he'd started there was really no alternative but to follow through. He didn't look behind him, he just sprinted as fast as his legs would carry him, straight through the hallucinated TARDIS, down the corridor, up a few steps, around a corner until he slammed into the back wall of an open elevator. He turned and quickly pushed every button for every floor, glancing back down the corridor as the doors slid gently closed.

The thing had not followed him, whatever it was. The Doctor wasn't sure what that meant, at this stage, but felt a little foolish for not having thought to turn and get a look at it before speeding away to safety. The thought of the creature was fascinating. It was something the Doctor had never encountered before, and he wondered if it really had been responsible for the hallucinations. If that was the case, then if Greg's girlfriend was anything to go by, then it was reasonable to speculate that the creature knew more about what was going on here than he did, or at least knew enough to send someone who may be able to help, in the right direction.

In the Doctor's mind, that confirmed it - He definitely needed to take a look in the lab, and see exactly what had gone wrong with this machine.


End file.
